Robotic Process Automation. Future is closer than you think.
Many organizations are finding it extremely difficult to manage their business processes. Further, automating a bad process does not necessarily make it better – it only makes it less costly in the short run. The overall objective should be geared towards making processes more effective and efficient. Organizations with a process-centric mentality execute a streamlined effort around improving their processes. Below are some benefits of using RPA to automate company business processes:
- To save humanity from routine tasks and provide the opportunity to perform more intelligent activities. By automating repetitive and mind-numbing tasks, RPA solutions make employees more productive and freer them for higher-value work. As a result, teams enjoy higher morale and greater engagement.
- To free up human resources by reducing operating costs with a direct positive impact on ROI.
- The robot works 24/7 without getting tired and making no mistakes if implemented properly. RPA bots execute processes, in the same way, every single time and handle tasks the way faster than a human being.
- The behaviour of the robot and the result of its work are always predictable. All steps are logged and can be traced back. This characteristic of the RPA allows to track performance and store all the data for regulatory requirements. RPA reduces human interaction with sensitive data and lowers the risk of fraud.
- RPA can work with existing systems without changing the underlying IT landscape. That is how they enable companies to grow without adding significant expenses on IT infrastructure.
RPA has an unlimited number of use-cases. The most popular examples are the following:
1- Procurement
The integration of the purchasing department and the accounts payable systems is an ideal candidate for RPA.
2- Payroll
Payroll is perfect for Robotic Process Automation, as it does well with processes that are recurring and heavily rule-based. Automating payroll allows small business owners and their accountant or bookkeeping partners to spend less time on back-office operations and more time building their businesses or providing more careful financial analysis.
3- Human Resources
Most tasks in the HR department are repetitive by nature. RPA brings forth the necessary innovative solutions for the HR process that changes the way it conducts its operations.
RPA can be used to automate resume screening, onboarding new hires, offer letter administration, expense management, attendance tracking and exit management processes.
4- Selling activities
Sales are an essential aspect of all kinds of business, regardless of size or domain. Take a moment to think about the monotonous work of keeping CRM and accounting records data consistent. The need for error-free sales activities is justified by the desire to avoid customer complaints and dissatisfaction.
5- Data entry
As you know, data entry is the epitome of monotony. Since RPA has the capability for basic pattern recognition, it can convert nearly all kinds of text into editable and searchable machine-encoded text, so the need for manual data entry is reduced. Therefore, fewer errors, faster results, fewer tired and bored employees.
6- Customer Services
With the advent of chatbots, RPA can be leveraged to instantly query legacy back-end systems whenever a customer asks questions to deliver a much more personalized answer.
Today many companies have already implemented the RPA system and are striving to improve it. These companies have innovated with robotic process automation by going beyond just improving operational efficiency.
KeyBank – Accounts Receivable System
KeyBank (commercial bank in the US) has automated invoice delivery and the accounts receivable process through an RPA solution built by Billtrust. It involves generating electronic invoices through Billtrust’s Quantum Payment Cycle Management. According to bank’s estimation, each operation to determine the SWIFT code takes about 0.9 minutes for a person – and the robot copes with it in 0.34 minutes which is 2.6 times faster. After a comparative analysis of all costs, it turned out that this operation alone allows the robot to save a significant amount of annual budget.
Siemens – Invoice payment
One example of end-to-end process automation is for managing invoice payment queries for both Siemens’ internal stakeholders and external suppliers. Siemens uses an integrated chatbot to automate and orchestrate invoice status related inquiries using real-time ERP and workflow data. Siemens’ cognitive Digital Workforce interprets intent, collects the required information, retrieves real-time status from back-end systems, sends a response to the users and if not resolved, creates a ticket – which is then passed to a human service agent. This automation is resulting in reduced manual effort, 24/7 availability and faster response times.
Initially, Siemens had 50 processes and 80,000 working hours automated. After completing its learning phase, the company scaled up activities in less than a year – with 170 additional processes in production and over 280,000 additional hours automated in the last fiscal year. The main benefits experienced by Siemens include cost reduction, quality improvement and faster response times.
RPA automation tools are evolving quickly. Today’s RPA is available in three types:
Attended RPA
Attended automation – this type of RPA refers to automation when users are in front of their computers. This is suitable if you want to automate tasks and processes on an individual level. Automation is often started manually whenever the user wants to start it. The process may require human interaction or decision making between stages.
Unattended RPA
Unattended automation – the type of automation where the designated computer or server is configured to run automation on behalf of a user. The entire automation process is completely controlled by Power Automate and does not require any human intervention. The automation process can be initiated by another service or self-starts according to defined schedule.
Hybrid RPA
Hybrid automation – type of RPA where employees and bots work together. They pass tasks back and forth to each other. Hybrid type helps companies to achieve automation on a more diverse range of scenarios and processes.
The global robotic process automation market size is expected to reach USD 25.66 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 40.6% over the forecast period. The requirement of enterprises to eliminate human error due to manual intervention in processes, along with reducing the time required, are factors favoring the speed of RPA implementation. The potential for achieving sustainable ROI from an RPA deployment depends entirely on the requirements of the organization and its business processes. In addition, adoption is expected to pick up as prices for RPA deployments consistently show a downward trend. However, factors such as resistance during the transition from manual processes to automation, as well as a lack of technical knowledge required during the deployment of an RPA solution are challenges that can affect the growth of this market. North America is expected to be the largest regional market, while the Asian market is expected to witness significant growth over the next 2-3 years. The presence of established and major players in the North American region and the infrastructure for effective implementation of RPA are among the main triggers accelerating the adoption of solutions for the automation of robotic processes.
The key players in the robotic process automation market are: